back to article Slippery, slimy find: LEGGY, WRIGGLY fossil shows SNAKES weren't legless. Or ARMLESS

A strange fossilised snake possessing four limbs which it could use for walking or gripping things has upset the applecart in the world of palaeo-snake boffinry. The fossil in question had actually been excavated some time ago in Brazil, which had been part of the ur-continent Gondwana at the time the leggy snake was alive, …

  1. Richard Wharram

    I, for one, welcome...

    Meh

    1. Richard Taylor 2

      Re: I, for one, welcome...

      Too late - dead a long time I believe

      1. Antonymous Coward
        Alien

        Re: I, for one, welcome...

        Pretty sure you'll find "the lizard people" as we call them these days are still very much alive and thriving in their niche as grand overlords of our species.

        1. Fungus Bob

          Re: I, for one, welcome...

          They all work in the insurance industry.

    2. Hollerith 1

      Re: I, for one, welcome...

      ...our teeny tiny lizard overlords.

    3. JCitizen
      Coat

      Re: I, for one, welcome...

      Meh too! Heck, I've seen snakes born with false limbs in the lower half of the body. This has been known forever that snakes had legs once upon a time! They act like this was a new discovery! NOT!

  2. Richard Taylor 2

    Out of interest,

    Who was the German expert?

    1. Chris 244

      Re: Out of interest,

      Helmut Tischlinger

      http://www.port.ac.uk/uopnews/2015/07/23/four-legged-snake-fossil-found/

  3. AndrueC Silver badge
    Happy

    bone-bothering boffins

    I like it. We need something for programmers. My first thought was silicon ticklers but that sounds a bit too hardware oriented. Compiler jockeys perhaps? Visual Studio often acts like a bucking bronco.

    1. Richard Wharram

      Code monkeys

      Is still a thing.

      1. Pookietoo

        Re: Code monkeys

        Is a disparaging term.

    2. TitterYeNot

      "We need something for programmers"

      Computer scientists could be Bit Bashing Boffins I suppose.

      There's also Backend Bothering Boffins, but that gives totally the wrong impression for some reason...

      1. captain veg Silver badge

        > Bit Bashing Boffins

        Code coshing codgers?

        -A.

        1. mhoulden
          Boffin

          I've seen Data Wranglers in the credits of a few TV shows.

      2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Coat

        We need something for programmers

        @TitterYeNot

        There's also Backend Bothering Boffins, but that gives totally the wrong impression for some reason...

        - "Business Anal-ysts"

    3. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      We need something for programmers.

      Bit-bothering boffins?

    4. GBE

      bit wallahs

      Or byte wallahs

  4. Yamas
    Joke

    It was the devil

    Sure, a snake that walked, it's in the bible, book of Genesis to be more precise and it was the devil aka Satan. Unfortunately he was punished - for revealing the truth to the nudist pair- to lose its limbs ans crawl on its belly for the rest of its life, much to the amusement of Ricky Gervais.

    1. Lars Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: It was the devil

      That snake was apparently wise enough to emigrate to South America in time. Incidentally perhaps those hands and legs gave it an advantage as a swimmer, but the again legs are made for walking among sea sick boffins.

  5. Nick Kew

    Eny fule kno

    ... the serpent got legless on the juice of that apple ...

    Of man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought ... perhaps the most overrated poet in the English language.

    1. Hollerith 1

      Re: Eny fule kno

      Oh gawd yes. I can't remember at what point I finally threw in the towel.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Eny fule kno

      "perhaps the most overrated poet in the English language."

      Milton was good for his time. The thing is, he was the last Christian poet of any significance before it all descended into hymn-writing; from then on the best poets with the best tunes were not very orthodox. (The church has grave doubts about T S Eliot because he suddenly drags Hinduism or Buddhism into things with a definite tone of approval. Though not Islam or Judaism.)

      So: overrated yes, most overrated - by whom? I'd offer Blake as the most overrated by new ageists. I'm not sure who overrates Milton these days. A few US fundamentalists?

      1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

        Re: Eny fule kno

        "...he was the last Christian poet of any significance before it all descended into hymn-writing; from then on the best poets with the best tunes were not very orthodox."

        I thought this would be easy to refute, but you're broadly right. Big narrative poems on religious themes die out around that time. The romantics are very unorthodox (Coleridge nearly had a career as a Unitarian minister) or are areligious. And when the Tractarians trigger a resurgence in religion, those poets who write narrative works and are deeply religious don't reimagine religious stories.

        I do wonder how much this is cause and effect. What poet would retread Paradise Lost unless they had a radically new vision?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And, found nearby

    The fossil of a bloke wearing a tiny pair of gaudy cowboy boots

  7. VeganVegan

    Sankes with legs are still around

    they are called lizards

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sankes with legs are still around

      No, they are not. There are very significant physical differences between snakes and lizards, which is why a slowworm can be confidently classified as a legless lizard, not a snake. For one thing, they can blink.

      Also, if you have a garden, please encourage slowworms. They keep down slugs, for one thing. Provide a warm habitat for them like a compost heap, some large stones with gaps underneath for them to hide in, and shoot any cats on sight.

      1. Snake Silver badge

        Re: Sankes [sic] with legs are still around

        "No, they are not."

        Yes, they ARE

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_skeleton#Vestigial_limbs

        Pythons and boas have vestigial limbs in their skeleton.

        And I know this because? I don't have that handle for nothing - I adore reptiles, snakes in particular. My Burmese python's pelvic spurs were very apparent...for those who bother to pay attention.

        1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

          Re: Sankes [sic] with legs are still around

          Are you a Python Programmer?

        2. lurker

          Re: Sankes [sic] with legs are still around

          I feel hidden vestigial pelvis bones and legs are not quite the same thing.

          However if your point is that this is not actually news which "upset the applecart in the world of palaeo-snake boffinry" that's obviously correct, that's just El Reg trying to make this more exciting or fit in a colourful boffin-based turn of phrase I guess.

          I guess the actual 'news' is that a fossil has been found which confirms something we already assumed to be the case due to circumstantial evidence.

  8. Nicholas Wilson

    Royal Pythons have pelvises

    Royal Pythons have vestigial pelvises and rear limbs. Male Royals have limb stubs articulated at the pelvis that they use to hold on to females during mating.

  9. ZenCoder

    Code Conjurer's ...

    Code Conjurers

    Text Tweakers

    Bit Bunglers

    1. Charles Manning

      Re: Code Conjurer's ...

      register rogerer

  10. Muscleguy
    Boffin

    One Squeeze Now

    Boas today still have vestigial hindlimbs, or the males do, with little bones, though no hands, buried in their body wall. They do still use them for grappling with lady snakes during scaly nooky. So this is hardly unexpected. But by the sounds of it a very nice fossil example. Another gap created!

  11. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Is this news?

    About 25 years ago I already heard that snakes used to have legs. Not sure if that was only speculation or what. Is there a palaeontologist on El Reg who could clarify?

  12. Zebo-the-Fat

    Nice!

    Another thing to throw at the creationist nutters who say evolution is false!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nice!

      "Another thing to throw at the creationist nutters who say evolution is false!"

      God put the fossil there to test the faith of the faithful and lead godless scientists into error. If your belief world is hermetic, nothing gets in or out.

      Try telling a Mormon about the evidence that Joseph Smith was a common fraudster.

      1. Simon Westerby 1

        Re: Nice!

        Good job the "creation" wasn't a government project.... gawd knows what (and when) we have ended up living on ...

    2. AJ MacLeod
      Facepalm

      Re: Nice!

      Yeah, yet more brilliant evidence of increasing complexity and new features arising - oh wait, no.

  13. raving angry loony

    Snakes armless?

    Snakes have never been 'armless! One of them 'armed my aunt not a few months ago!

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